UK Chart History
This page lists a timeline for UK music charts from 1940-1952 (The Missing Charts era) and 1952-2013. 1940-1952 (The Missing Charts era) Chart History Alterations Due to the Missing Charts revelation, several chart records and stats are now incorrect. *I Believe - Frankie Laine was the No.1 with the most Weeks at No. 1 - 18 Weeks, in 3 'Runs', during 1953. Now it is beaten by White Christmas, by Bing Crosby. That went to No.1 in 1942, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, & 1951 - for a Total of 24 Weeks. (added in 9 Weeks of missing Charts. It has 15 No.1 Weeks without them). *Until now only 2 No.1 Hits have reached No.1 as many as 3 times. They were I Believe - Frankie Laine, (1953), & Singing The Blues - Guy Mitchell, (1957). Both are now easily beaten by Bing Crosby's White Christmas, which was No.1 in 8 different Chart Runs - 1942, & 1945 to 1951. (It was a No.2 Hit in 1943 & 1944). *The 1st No.1 is no longer Al Martino's Here In My Heart. It is now Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again. *Here In My Heart gets 8 Weeks at No.1 in the Book. Added to its 9 in the NME Charts, gives it 17 No.1 Weeks. *Rihanna's Umbrella, (2007 - 10 Weeks), is no longer the Single with most Weeks at No.1 by a Female Artist. **That Old Black Magic - Judy Garland - 14 Weeks (1943) **Cornish Rhapsody - Harriet Cohen - 14 Weeks (1944/1945) (includes 2 missing chart weeks) **Music! Music! Music! - Teresa Brewer - 12 Weeks (1950) *Judy Garland goes from having just 1 Hit, (No.18 in 1955), to having several, with 14 in the Top 10 - 4 at No.1, including Over The Rainbow. (The Book says 'The Trolley Song' was a 1945 No.2 Hit, in the Judy Garland Section - Page 254. But on Page 110 it is shown as being at No.1, (1 Week), in the Chart of W/B 4th June 1945. So, she had 4 No.1's - not 3). *The Ink Spots had just 1 Hit until now - Melody Of Love. (No.10 - 1955). Now they have many Hits, With 9 of them going to No.1. One of them, (Bless You), went to No.1 twice. For 8 Weeks in 1940/1941, & for 9 Weeks in 1946. Giving it 17 Weeks at No.1 - 18 if you add in a missing Week at the end of 1940. That either puts it equal to Here In My Heart, by Al Martino - 17. Or equal to I Believe by Frankie Laine - 18. (I'm counting Bless You as 1 of their 9 No.1's - not 2) *The 9 Ink Spots No.1's spent 61 Weeks on Top. (Counting one missing Chart Week). That gives them the 4th most Weeks at No.1 in the Singles Chart. Bing Crosby is 1st - 192 Weeks. (Or 183 - depending if you include 9 missing Chart Weeks). Elvis Presley is 2nd, (80 Weeks), & The Beatles are 3rd, (69 Weeks). It also means that only The Beatles have more Singles Weeks at No.1, as regards Groups. *Elvis Presley, (18 0r 21, depending how you count), no longer has the most UK No.1 Hits. Bing Crosby has 44! *The Andrews Sisters go from having Zero Hits, to having several. 9 of them at No.1, which puts them equal with the Spice Girls, as regards Female Groups. (4 of the Andrews Sisters No.1's were with Bing Crosby). Their 9 No.1's give them 40 No.1 Weeks - the most Singles Chart No.1 Weeks by any Female Act. (The Spice Girls also spent 40 Weeks at No.1 in the UK, but 22 Weeks were from Singles, & 18 Weeks from Albums. The Andrews Sisters have never had a UK Hit Album. Or any Hit Singles, until now). *Al Jolson has had Zero Hit Singles, until now. He now has many, with 7 of them reaching No.1. Including the longest consecutive 'Run' at No.1 ever, by the same Artist. That was in 1947 when Swanee/April Showers was No.1 for 9 Weeks. He then replaced himself at No.1 with The Anniversary Song, & that was No.1 for 10 Weeks. *Frank Sinatra gains 10 more No.1 Hits, to raise him from 3 to 13. *Vera Lynn has 6 more No.1's - giving her 7 rather than 1. *Doris Day goes from 2 to 5. *Guy Mitchell from 4 to 8. *Johnnie Ray from 3 to 6. *Nat 'King' Cole has his first No.1 Singles - 4. He's never been higher than No.2 before. 1940 *On 01/01/1940, the very first UK singles chart was published and was 30 positions long, until 15/11/1952. The charts are dated on Mondays until the 'known' chart era. 1952 *The last 'missing chart' to be published was on 27/10/2013. However, the week beginning chart for 03/11/1952 (and therefore week ending 08/11/1952) would be missing from the charts due to the chart dating system being changed from a Monday to the week ending Saturdays. 1950s 1952 *15/11/1952 - First 'known' UK Singles Chart - 12 positions long. The first UK Singles number one single was Here In My Heart by Al Martino. The dates are changed to every Saturday. 1953 *24/10/1953 - Ties for positions no longer allowed more than one position of the same number. This was then changed back to the old regime on ??, until 16/01/1954 it was changed back to the new regime, reverting to the old until 15/05/1953, going back to the old regime until ??. 1954 *02/10/1954 - The UK Singles Chart increased to 20 positions long. 1955 *31/12/1955 - For only one week at Christmas the chart is 25 positions long. Previous Christmas weeks were not published before hand. 1956 *14/04/1956 - The UK Singles Chart increased to 30 positions long. *28/07/1956 - First UK Albums Chart - 5 positions long. The first number one album was Songs For Swingin' Lovers by Frank Sinatra. 1960s 1960 *12/03/1960 - The Official Charts Company began archiving a top 40 for the single and albums. *02/04/1960 - The UK Singles and Album Chart were increased to 50 positions long. 1969 *11/02/1969 - The Official Charts Company took over the job of compiling the UK Singles and Album Chart after NME. 1970s 1973 *The Christmas week is not published for the first time since Christmas 1954. 1978 *13/05/1978 - The UK Singles and Album Chart were increased to 75 positions long. 1980s 1983 *04/01/1983 - The UK Singles and Album Chart were increased to 100 positions long. 1988 *14/01/1989 - All Various Artists albums drop out of the UK Albums Chart, due to the UK Compilations Chart being created during that time 1990s 1991 *April/May 1991 - The UK Singles and Album Chart were reduced from a top 100 to a top 75 due to Record Mirror's publication being discontinued. The charts were then increased back to a top 100 on . *1991 - The UK Singles and Album Chart were increased back to a top 100. *May 1991 - The UK Singles Chart was increased to 200 positions long and the Albums Chart up to 150, although the Top 101-200 data was only available through UK Charts Plus via a paid subscription service. 1996 *November 1996 - The UK Albums Chart was extended to 200 positions long. 2000s 2004 *March 2004 - The Chart Archive site is created by Mazilladon to archive UK Singles and Albums from 1952. The Official Charts Company then asked Mazilladon to take the chart data off the site because it breaches OCC's database rights on 15/11/2012 (exactly 60 years after the first UK Singles Chart!). 2008 *Christmas 2008 - The first campaign against the X Factor's winner's single results in a Hallelujah being both number 1 (Alexandra Burke's version) and number 2 (Jeff Buckley's version) 2010s 2010 *10/03/2010 - The BBC website hosted the first Chart Update/Midweek Chart Top 40, which was a midweek preview of UK Singles and Albums published on Wednesdays at 6:00PM. 2012 *05/10/2012, 18:16 - The UK Charts Archive Wiki is created. *15/11/2012 - The Official Charts Company asks Mazilladon to take the chart data off the site because it breaches OCC's database rights (exactly 60 years after the first UK Singles Chart!). Rate this page 5 4 3 2 1 Chart Lengths Singles Note: The chart weeks from 01/01/1940-27/10/1952 were dated as week beginning (Mondays). 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